I invite you to turn with me in your Bible to the book of Revelation. If you're unfamiliar with your Bible, that's the last book in our Bible. If you've been here a while, you've known that we've started several times a series on the book of Revelation in 2002, 2009, and both times ended up just after chapter five somewhere, get to chapter six, and then it gets strange, and so I back down both times. But I am committed, by the grace of the Lord, to plow forward. As I've been studying this book again, I'm so, Encouraged, challenged, there's some great materials that are out, and I am increasingly just convinced that this is a book that we need to hear. In our day, in the cultural pressure we face, the opposition that we face, we need to hear about a mighty king who reigns over the church today. And so, looking forward to studying this with you. The book of Revelation, we're going to read the whole first chapter, but focusing this morning on the first three verses. Let's give our attention to God's Word. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priest to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him, even so. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not. I am the first and the last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches." So far with the reading of God's Word, let's pray together. Well, God in heaven, we have these words given to us by the inspiration of the Spirit, and now we pray for the illumination, that our eyes would be opened to see the beauty and the glory of Jesus presented here on these pages. We thank you, Lord, for this revelation, and I pray that we would receive it as such and be, Lord, encouraged and strengthened in our hearts as we hear our Savior speak to us and as we see him revealed in the pages of Scripture. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. In a survey of congregations, members were asked, which book of the Bible would you most like to hear preached from? And the top book that was listed was the book of Revelation. In another survey given to pastors and asking which book of the Bible are you the most reluctant to preach from, you can guess the answer. The book of Revelation is a challenge because it's a strange genre. It's apocalyptic literature. It's not like historical narrative. It's not like poetry, wisdom literature, or even most prophecy. It's its own unique thing, and it takes a particular approach, and that can be challenging. There's also a great deal of controversy surrounding the book of Revelation, and it can be difficult to know which… what part of those controversies are gonna be helpful, what part of those controversies and debates are simply interesting things that you can read on your own if you'd like to do that, but really edifying, what's really edifying for the church? And so as we go through this series, I'm not gonna be looking to follow every track, every trail, every different opinion or way maybe of interpreting this. We're gonna try to keep the main thing. The book of Revelation is about magnificent, great, necessary things. What we have in the book of Revelation, in a sense, is God pulling back the curtain between time and eternity and allowing us to see behind the curtain, to see things from a spiritual and heavenly perspective. And we're shown the nature of evil in the world. We see the devil, this great dragon and the beast at work in the world, making the nations blind with materialism and drunk with sexual immorality. There's a real devil. And we have a vivid description of the church in the world, persecuted, suffering, martyred, tempted, despised by the world. The focus of demonic attack. That's what we read about in the book of Revelation. But most importantly, the primary theme running through the whole book is about a sovereign, reigning, awesome king, the Alpha and Omega, ruler of the kings of the earth. And that's what makes Revelation such a magnificent book. It is a book about Jesus. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And we're going to then, as we go through this book, Delight in Jesus together, as God shows us Jesus now in his ministry on the throne of heaven, ruling over the nations of the world. And this book calls us then to live not by what is seen, but by what is unseen. This calls us to live with a deep sense of the reality of things that in our secular age, we could easily miss. Our secular age doesn't really believe in spiritual things. But the book of Revelation is full of spiritual things, the reality of them, the reality of a heaven and a hell, of a King Jesus and a devil and suffering for his name, the reality of judgment, the reality of a new heaven and new earth. This book will help us gain a spiritual vision so that we see things as they actually are. Hopefully you have an outline. This morning we'll be looking at first the prologue and then the purpose and then the promise, the prologue and the purpose and the promise. John begins with this prologue, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. This is not the revelation of John, as the old King James, I think, has it that way. It's the revelation to John. It's the revelation of Jesus, Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God is showing us Jesus in these pages. And Jesus, that is, largely unknown in our sort of Christianized culture, or at least the remnants of it today. The Jesus that, if you would talk to people about Jesus in the world at large, if they believe in a Jesus, it's a very mild Jesus. The pictures that they'll probably have in their mind is what they've seen in some picture, poster, long flowing, you know, sort of fair faucet type of hairstyle. nice, soft, brown eyes, a very meek, very mild sort of Jesus. And people will be convinced that this Jesus, really all he cares about is love. Could we just love each other? Well, that is not the Jesus of the book of Revelation. You'll see already in chapter one, a Jesus who has this golden sash around his chest. The hair of his head is like snow, white like snow. His eyes are like flames of fire. His feet are like burnished bronze, refined by fire. His voice is like the roar of many waters. If you go to chapter 19 in your Bible, you see that the Jesus of Revelation is a warrior king. Chapter 19, look at verse 11. Then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's the Jesus of Revelation. That's the Jesus who actually is reigning today at the right hand of God, the head of the church, the ruler of the nations. Think about how comforting that vision would have been to the early church. This letter's probably written around 90 A.D. There's some discussion about that. Some think it was earlier. I think by far the evidence shows it's written later in around 90, written by John as he's on the island of Patmos because of his faith. And he has these visions, and in these visions Jesus himself Appears to his church now if it's 90 AD that means it's been 60 years since Jesus Approximately since Jesus was crucified and ascended into heaven 60 years is quite a bit of time a Churches have been planted the people who originally saw Jesus most all of them will have passed away but the church is being persecuted sorely persecuted and It's hated by the Jews as being heretical. It's hated by the Greeks as being foolish. It's hated by the Romans as being weakness. And there was a cost to being a Christian. Well, what a comfort to suddenly have a revelation like this given to you from John, but it's a revelation from God himself to the church. God making this known by sending his angel to his servant. Beeky writes this, Joel Beeky, he says, this revelation was delivered by an angel to the apostle John so that we all might benefit from it. When you want to send a particularly valuable item through the mail, you don't just stuff it in the mail slot and hope for the best. You send it by registered mail to ensure that the item is received and signed for by the person to whom it is addressed. Well, revelation has come to us as a letter registered by God. hand-delivered by an angel for the benefit of believers throughout history. I think it's amazing that God, in a sense, hand-delivers by an angel this message to John and then to the churches, including the church today. Have you ever been to the zoo and you'll notice a young family walking along admiring the animals and everybody's oohing and aahing except the little two-year-old who's toddling along behind with her little arms raised up saying, let me see, let me see. She's too short, too little, she can't see over the wall, and so she wants to enjoy the sight the others see, and so finally her father will pick her up and usually start pointing out things and explaining things. That's the lion, that's whatever it might be, and that's what he's doing. And so suddenly now from the perspective of his height and his explanation, she can see what she couldn't see before. Well, that's what the book of Revelation is like. We're not able from our limited perspective to see what's going on behind the veil, over the wall. But here our Heavenly Father lifts us up to show us the story of human history and the sovereign purposes of God for the church from His perspective and from His arms. And the Holy Spirit explains what we're seeing as the visions unfold. And as he does so, he's continually pointing us to one figure, King Jesus. That's what we're going to see as we go through the book. This book has a purpose, secondly, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must take place. It's important to remember as we start this book that it's revelation. It's not an enigma. It doesn't need a secret code to unlock it. The Greek word for revelation, apocalypsis, in the verb form it means to remove the veil to expose what's hidden. This is a pulling back of the veil so that we can see what formerly we could not see. This is a pulling back of the veil so that we can see King Jesus in his majestic glory, in his incredible awesome reality, going about his ministry of destroying the devil and gathering his church until he makes everything new. Now that's wonderful encouragement because we We so often fail to see things as they are. Jesus and the ways of God seem hidden to us. We look around us and what we see is a decaying culture, decaying at a rate faster than we would have imagined possible. We look around and see a world increasingly antagonistic to the church. We look and we see a church increasingly compromised and weakened by the world. It looks to our eyes so often like evil is actually winning. You look at Europe where there are churches everywhere. A testimony to a faith that was vibrant and strong a hundred years ago and yet now is nearly completely gone. But you see, one thing we'll learn in the book of Revelation is that things are not always as they seem. Dennis Johnson points out in his excellent commentary, The Triumph of the Lamb, that a major theme of this book is just that, things are not what they seem. For example, we'll find as we go through the letters to the churches that the church in Smyrna appears to be poor but is actually very rich. Contrary, the church in Laodicea appears very rich but are completely impoverished and blind and in great need. The church in Sardis has a reputation for being alive. But actually, it's a dead church. And as we go through the book, we're going to see a beast that looks utterly invincible. And we're gonna see a people that seem completely helpless. And a lamb that's been slain. But it's the slain lamb who conquers the beast and the suffering saints who overcome the world by the testimony of their faith. Things are not what they seem. And as we go through the book, we'll learn to read human history and the story of our lives, not by external appearances, not by how things seem, but according to the sovereign purposes of God. We'll learn to see things as they really are. Now, the unique feature of the book of Revelation, of course, is that this revelation is given primarily in symbols and visions and pictures. Revelation is a book, you can read it, but it's a picture book. It has these graphic images and scenes, all these things that John saw, and that's noted already here in the first few verses, that John is bearing witness to all that he saw, not all that he heard primarily, all that he All that he saw, 52 times in the book. We hear or read, and I saw, or John saw. So we have these really vivid scenes of eagles soaring and speaking as they fly. We have locusts that look like horses prepared for battle and marching. We have a great red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns. These are the images, the pictures that we find. And we might be tempted to think, well, that's like fantasy stuff. That's fairy tale stuff. But the truth, you see, is that these symbols are necessary, not because the things they depict are less than real, but because they are more than real. They're deeper than the things that we know. The strength of word pictures is that they make a powerful impact on the imagination, and we get a sense of the deep mystery of eternal things, and the incredible drama that's being unfolded by the purposes of God. We get a sense of the knee-buckling glory of Jesus, and the awful terror of evil, and the necessity of divine judgment. Things that you could just read about in narrative and they would be true, but the images somehow make these, we get a sense of them. Our imagination can lay hold of them. The challenge of word pictures is that visions and symbols can be confusing. It's not a means of communication that we're familiar with. So the question is, what does it mean? What is this dragon with seven heads and 10 horns? There's all sorts of things. How do you understand what this is supposed to mean? Well, it's a bit like learning a foreign language. We just have to learn the language. If you go to a foreign country, you need to learn what the idioms are, the slang, the vernacular, the terms. And as we go through this gallery of divine imagery, We're gonna start learning the language. We're gonna find that numbers mean things. The number three, the number four, the number seven, the number 12. All those numbers have significance and we'll learn what that is. We're gonna realize that colors mean things. Animals represent things. And so we'll be looking to learn the language. Just notice the colors of the book. If we just read in chapter one, where Jesus, the hair of his head is white like snow, like wool, and his eyes are flames of fire, and his feet are like burnished bronze, his voice like the roar of many waters. It's very graphic, and we need to let our imagination see it. But thankfully, God has given us not only, we'll be learning things as we go through it, but the text will also tell us what the symbol means. So, in chapter 1, Jesus has seven stars and there's seven lampstands, and the text tells us, Jesus says, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, the seven lampstands are the seven churches. It doesn't tell us everything, but it clarifies what we're looking at. That's very helpful. But the greatest interpretive tool for understanding the book of Revelation is the Word of God itself, specifically the Old Testament. Someone has, by one account, there are over 400 verses in Revelation that allude to the Old Testament. The books, and the problem is we don't read our Old Testament very much. Most of us probably don't go there first. And the portions of the Old Testament that we're most familiar with are the historical narratives. Maybe the Psalms, but mostly historical narrative. What John alludes to primarily, he alludes to the Psalms, and then it's Daniel and Ezekiel and Isaiah. When's the last time you just had a real good study of Ezekiel? We're probably due for that. We just had a sermon series on Daniel. That'll be helpful. But those are the books that John is primarily referring to. These would be books that would be familiar to his early audience, which is primarily Jewish. And so they would recognize... things in the visions that have, that allude to Old Testament reality. So when they read about this beast that emerges from the sea in chapter 13, they would say, well, that's a composite of what we find in, of the four beasts in Daniel seven. We've seen this before. The two witnesses of Revelation 11. Well, that sounds like the two olive trees of Zachariah four. And that's exactly right. they would see recurrences of historical themes. So the serpent who deceives the woman in Genesis 3 is found persecuting the woman and her son in Revelation 12. And so as we go through the book of Revelation, we're going to be having our Old Testaments opened and explained to us as well. Because what's happening here in the last book of the Bible is Jesus is taking all of revealed scripture and the history of redemption and showing how it all comes together in the person of Jesus Christ and the final accomplishment of Christ as he gathers his church, judges his enemies, and inaugurates a new heaven and a new earth. This is how the story comes to a close. It's tremendously encouraging in that. and it's written to show us, His servants, what must soon take place. This was written to the church then and today. It's written to a church under attack, a church that's that's being opposed by the world, the flesh, and the devil. It's not given to satisfy sort of eschatological curiosity, what's gonna happen down the road. It's not meant to be fodder for end times novels or movies. It's not what exists. Please do not go read Left Behind or any of that stuff to say, I'm gonna really read up on this book and find what's going on. It's written to the church. and to the church under attack here and now, in these last days. And the church is under attack primarily in three ways. Persecution, false teachers, and cultural accommodation. They're being persecuted primarily by Domitian in that day as the threat of this people who do not, they don't worship the pagan gods, they don't bow to Caesar as Lord and God. So they're facing real persecution. There's false teachers, as we're gonna find when we get to the letters, to the churches, who are undermining the gospel. There's the danger of cultural accommodation. We live in an American world. The early church lived in a Roman Hellenistic world. The reality was seen through those lens, and the culture was aggressive. conforming nations and peoples to this common vision of what matters, what's real. Well, we're in constant danger of being compromised by our culture and being tempted to imperceptibly follow the path of cultural accommodation rather than face the fury of cultural opposition. This is incredibly relevant for 21st century Americans. And the book has a great promise for us. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. Blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written for the time is near. Blessed is the one who reads aloud. As you know, in those days, there weren't books, there were scrolls, and they were expensive. And so this would be a letter that would be written down, and then it would be read aloud to the congregation, most of the people not being able to read. And they would hear this. And so as we go through the book, we'll be reading it, and just ask you to hear it, and to let your mind, let your imagination see what John saw. Blessed though, not only those who read it, but those who hear and keep what is written in it. There's a wonderful promise and a sober reminder, isn't there? This message from God to you, the church, carries an awesome weight and obligation. The final question as we study the book of Revelation isn't, have we correctly interpreted it? The final question is, have we heard and are we applying it? I was looking through the notes of the Bible study fellowship and they had some really good application questions about the book. Will we believe what is revealed here? Will we submit our maybe cynicism or our ignorance, whatever it is, and just believe what God reveals here and believe it truly? Will we trust the uncertainties of our life to the one who holds our future and all things in his hand? Will we trust this king? Will we look past the chaos of this world and find security and peace and joy in the one who has accomplished victory over our sin and the devil? Now this letter is meant to give us security and peace and joy as we look to Jesus. Dennis Johnson writes, our interpretation of Revelation must be driven by the difference God intends it to make in the life of His people. If we could explain every phrase, identify every allusion to the Old Testament, and yet we're silenced by the intimidation of public opinion in our day. terrorized by the prospect of suffering in our day, enticed by the affluent Western culture's promise of security, comfort, and pleasure, then we would not have begun to understand the book of Revelation. God has a purpose for us, and it's an urgent message. The time is near, the text says. The book ends with the very same sorts of words. Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. That's Revelation 22, verse seven. And so this book, friends, is given to us to strengthen us, to strengthen our faith, to show us the reality of Jesus Christ, our King, to show us the reality of the devil and spiritual warfare. There is an antithesis. We're gonna hear that word as we go through this book. It just means that there's a dividing line between the church and the world. This age is not our friend. The principles of this world are opposed to us. We live in Babylon. That's the word that you'll find popping up in Revelation. That means that there's a battle to fight. There actually is, says the church of Jesus Christ. There's a foe to face. There's a cost to bear. But we do that, this letter is given to strengthen us with vivid images that show us the glorious realities that we can rely on as we fight this fight. I'm going to close by a little piece from C.S. Lewis. He wrote, as you know, he loved fairy tales. Narnia is a fairy tale. But one of the objections that Lewis would get objections from people that fairy tales were dangerous for children. And one of the objections is that fairy tales will frighten the children. All these dragons and beasts and all these sorts of things. And this is how Lewis responds. He says, we must carefully define what we mean by frighten. If we mean that we must not instill disabling pathological fears in children, well and good. But in making this objection, some mean that we must try to keep out of the child's mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism, and cowardice, good and evil. But we are born into a world like that, and hiding it from children actually handicaps them. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. Amen. You see, that's Revelation. It's not a fairytale. It's deep truth. But it's written to remind us of the world that we actually do live in. It's written to remind us that we're born into a world like that, a world of death and wounds and adventure and good and evil, and so let the church hear of a mighty Lord. Let the church hear of a warrior king who has accomplished the victory, who's fought the battle with his own body and blood and now calls us to follow him as his mighty army. Let the church then follow Jesus as this army of saints who fight not with swords, but with truth, who stand not by their strength, but by faith, who conquer by suffering and overcome the devil by dying. See, the devil is a defeated foe. Jesus reigns. That's the story of Revelation, and that's the story meant for us. Let's believe it and live according to it. Amen. God in heaven, we thank You that You've given us this precious book to show us a glorious Savior, to help us understand who we are and where we live, what's at stake, what's assured that we might more and more love and trust this Jesus in every detail of our life, and that we would not be frightened by our foes, but trusting in Jesus Christ, delighting in Him, would live for Him. Father, thank You that He's coming again, but thank You that He's reigning today. Glorious, majestic, awesome, terrifying, and yet the lover of our souls, the one who calls us to abide in Him, to trust His rule, and to look forward with great expectation to the day when we will see Him face to face. May that day come soon. Amen. I've asked the musicians if we could just do the first hymn that we sang in the service. The first hymn we sang, I think we sang by faith. Now we can sing it a little more by sight and with a little more fervor and praise. Let's sing about the reign of Jesus Christ for our lives, in our day, for the church. Let's stand together and close our service in song. the sun, but in success in any time. His kingdom spread from shore to shore, till the sun shall rise and set no more. Blessings of love, where The weary climb the eternal crest, and all the sons of bonds are blessed. highest praise, rising through eternal days, just and faithful he shall reign, Jesus shall reign. every day. to God with the highest praise rising through eternal days. Just how pitiful we shall reign, Jesus shall reign. Let every creature rise and bring Blessing and honor to our King. Angels we stand with psalms anew. Let earth repeat. ♪ The love of men ♪ ♪ To our great divinest praise ♪ ♪ Rising through eternal days ♪ ♪ Just and faithful we shall reign ♪ ♪ Jesus shall reign ♪ God's people said, Amen. So be it. Now the Lord, the living Lord, bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his glorious countenance upon you and give you his peace. Amen.